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Mobile employees boost productivity — and risk

One-third of the participants in a recent study said their company doesn't have a mobile security program; of the two-thirds that do have a program, 75 percent of respondents said security is lax.

December 4, 2014

Not too long ago, the office computer filled an entire room. Now, it fills the palm of the hand of one-third of all employees who use only a mobile device in their jobs.

This figure is forecasted to jump to 50 percent over the next 12 months. The BYOD (bring your own device) generation of workers has arrived.

A recent Ponemon Institute survey commissioned by 3M revealed that for a large portion of employees, the mobile device is a first-line medium for conducting business.

This trend is here to stay, and one reason is because it's responsible for significantly pumping up productivity. Employers love this. More productivity equals higher profits.

But with all the improvements in productivity enabled by mobile device, there comes a corresponding jump in the risks of data breaches — both intentional and accidental.

You'd think that some of those increased profits would be reinvested in security training that correlates to the BYOD movement, since the BYOD movement strongly correlates with an increase in data breaches and risks of breaches.

But they're not. Organizations still aren't seeing the light. As a result, security is lagging behind the fast-growing trend.

Other findings from the Ponemon study: One-third of businesses surveyed don't have security programs for their BYOD'ers; about three-quarters said that their existing security was lax; and 60 percent said mobiles have made employees rather lazy with security awareness.

There's definitely a human factor involved with all of this that businesses must address. If employees — and employers — want to use mobiles to conduct business, they should also embrace the responsibility that comes with the use of these devices.

This includes training on how to secure sensitive data stored on these devices, and how to recognize social engineering and other cybercriminal tricks.

Robert Siciliano is a privacy consultant to 3M.

photo courtesy nana agyei | flickr